Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Read a Snack, Eat A Story

Aunt Deb, Reagan, Nolan and I attended a story/craft hour at the Metroparks on Monday. We all had such a good time! It was way more than I expected and the kids got introduced to all kinds of new things and got to interact with other kids. They don't really seem to care much about other kids though. Maybe because they always have each other they just don't notice? Nolan did "borrow" another child's juice box though.

Here is Reagan and her cute little name tag with ants on it. She just wanted to go explore as soon as we got there.


They really enjoyed watching the turtle swim. Nolan tried to unplug his aquarium though. Oops.
They also had some tunnels like we have at home so they knew exactly what to do. Since the theme of our story time was trees these were supposed to represent the hollow log.


We circled around to meet Mr. Tree, a large puppet with eyes that opened. They did a little dance where they were trees and the grew tall and swayed in the wind and rain. Reagan LOVED it. She and Aunt Deb were oak trees swaying in the breeze.


Nolan did a little of the dance, but preferred to do his own thing. The instructor said before the activities started that it was better to let them wander instead of making them sit. It worked for Nolan, he kept circling back to see what was going on. He liked to walk right up to her to check things out.


After Mr. Tree went back to sleep. We had to pick up all the branches that blew down while we were dancing. They were fake pieces of wood and soft "sticks." Reagan was right in front putting pieces away!!! I was shocked. They don't seem to "get" the concept of clean up time at the end of the day at home. I guess they get it, just selectively! Nolan had to put all the "sticks" in his mouth first!

We went to the craft area and they gave us a construction paper tree stump, some things to glue on the stump that live on/in/under a tree, and a glue stick. You can guess where the glue stick went. Deb and I spread a little glue on the stump and they put their worms, frogs, and ants on the stump. These now hang proudly on our fridge!

Next was story and snack time. At this point, Deb and I were getting woozy from all the fun. That is were the blog title comes from. Deb tried to get Reagan to "read a snack" and I told Nolan it was time to "eat a story!" (Bill asks: "Are you sure you weren't using airplane glue?"). Anyway, we all sat down with some snacks and listen to a story. Well, Reagan sat very nicely and pointed at the mouse when the lady read about a mouse and followed along very well. She was really enjoying herself. Nolan walked around and ate his snack.
After stories we would have gone for a walk and looked for the animals we glued on the stumps, but it was raining too hard so we had play time with clay. This was the first time the kids have done this and they seemed to like it. I got the recipe for the clay they made since it is not harmful if ingested (which you know Nolan did).

We all left with big smiles on our tired faces. It was a really fun time. After seeing how well this program was run, I'm really looking forward to Breakfast with Old MacDonald at the Farm Park in a couple of weeks.
Here is my final shot taken through a decoration on the window.

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